Topic: Your Muse

Hey all,

I'm curious, what inspires you during a writing session?

Do you need silence?

Do you listen to music? What kind?

Do you write inside or outside?

Do you multi-task while you write or do you hone in?


Answer however you want, the questions above are just suggestions to get this started. For me, my muse has always been music. Back to the first time I started writing as a teenager. Breaking Benjamin was a huge inspiration for me and I find myself listening to similar music when writing scenes.

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2 Reply by Marilyn Johnson (edited by Marilyn Johnson 2017-07-23 06:44:01)

Re: Your Muse

Funny you should ask because I was just thinking about this today.  For me, I write in my head all day long.  Most of my "head" writing doesn't ever make it to paper, but I play out different scenes in my brain as I go about my daily activities.

For me to actually sit and type, I need to be alone with no one talking to me.  I can have something playing in the background...TV usually, but not something I have to be following.  The actual typing part is always done inside.  My ideal situation for writing is inside, HGTV droning in the background, starting around 11PM, and writing for three or four hours, cat sleeping on top of my desk.

As strange as it sounds, I cannot write a story until I have a title.  When I first started my western novel called Two Roads to Sunday, I built the story around the title.  Sunday is the name of a fictitious 1870s town in New Mexico.  Same thing with Patty Jean.  There were simply thousands of titles for that particular one, but until I firmly decided on the simplicity of 'Patty Jean,' I couldn't write the first word.  Most people write their story and then come up with the title.  I'm just weird like that.  LOL!

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Re: Your Muse

I generally "write" the story in my head before putting it to paper. Of course the story often changes in significant ways once I start applying concrete words and sentences. My typing area is upstairs in the bonus/office room where I mostly have nothing playing in the background, but if the TV or something else is going on where I can hear it, it doesn't really bother me as I tune it out the majority of time. I may occasionally take a break to rest my fingers and listen to what is going on before resuming the job at hand. I generally like to finish a complete short story or novel chapter at one sitting. Once it is complete on paper, I will go back and make revisions several times before submitting for others to read. That's my playbook. Take care. Vern

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Re: Your Muse

I could almost say Amen to everything Marilyn said. However, I like total silence when I write, and I like to be alone, which is hard since my husband is retired. He does his best to leave me alone, but just knowing any moment he can step to the door to ask me something, keeps me from writing most of the time. Like Marilyn, my characters are always in my head. My bed gets really crowded most nights!! I also like to have a title first and always have except for one book. I had a working title but didn't decide on a final until that book was finished. Even ran a contest to name it. Many times, I'll come up with one scene I intend to put in the book that will include the title, usually in dialogue. Like one of my characters said to the other...Say You'll Never Love Me...that was the title. One said, Tell Me a Secret, something you've never told anyone else...Tell Me a Secret was the title. That title pivotal scene may not occur until late in the book, but it reveals the title. In my latest book, Chirp, that title came from the first scene I wrote in my head, which didn't happen until chapter 16 in the book. Turns out, readers loved the reason behind the title! I was so glad because it is my most favorite scene I've ever written.

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Re: Your Muse

For me, it is inside. I usually create a music playlist for my stuff that I play at about 20% on my comp speakers, music that represents the themes in my book.

During the day before I write, I go over the scene in my mind, trying to visualize what I want to put down in words. What I visualized and write are often different, something that took a while to make peace with, and I try to reach a compromise with. The important thing to me is to capture the essence of it. I often see my stuff as making a movie that I'm trying to capture in words. This scene all comes down to this one moment I'm hoping sticks in the readers mind.

I have only written three novels so far, and that served me well for two of them. (None published yet, I'm not in a hurry.) The third my MC took over and wrote a story I couldn't comprehend, and argued with her quite a bit in rewriting. Darn near me quit writing, as it was a weird experience.

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Re: Your Muse

Ryan Maddux wrote:

The third my MC took over and wrote a story I couldn't comprehend, and argued with her quite a bit in rewriting. Darn near me quit writing, as it was a weird experience.

That's happened to me, but for me, it was a side character who took over the story. She was supposed to have a small role, and decided that instead she would be the protagonist and make the story entirely about her own issues. I wasn't experienced enough as a writer to keep her in her place, so she took over & destroyed the story I was meaning to tell. I think she'd be great in another story, but I would have preferred she wait for her own book. smile

When I write, I vanish. I don't care if there's music or no music, though I find sometimes that music can alter what I'm writing, sometimes for the worse, as I'll find myself writing to the mood of whatever is playing. So it's often better for the story to turn it off. Anyway, I vanish, as in, I blink, and twelve hours has gone by. But like Ann, this process can be shattered even by a moment in the real world. It's as if I'm creating strings of thoughts in my head, and they're leading me somewhere -- and someone poking in at the door expecting me to answer even a minor question shatters the strings, and within seconds I lose everything. But if I'm left alone, they build and build, weaving something in a place well beyond conscious thought. I think following the strings is the creativity? And knowing your story well enough to turn off the music and tell the side character to wait for her own book is the common sense. smile

I have no idea if that's the normal writing process.

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